‘Can they get away by throwing money at us?’

Babu doesn’t like talking about the Martys. They did ‘‘bura kaam (bad things)’’ with Arpita, he says.

The high court ruling (see box) has angered the families. ‘‘They have destroyed us. Can they get away by throwing money at us?’’ an angry Vimla wants to know. Vimla’s daughter Savita was one of the kids abused by the Martys.

‘‘Kitna zulm kiya woh log… (They committed such atrocities). They violated our trust. We are poor. Who will get us justice?’’ wonders Babu.

There are no easy answers.

On Monday, the Bombay High Court turned down the state government’s plea for a stay on its order setting the Martys free. So on Wednesday, the government will knock on the Supreme Court’s doors, hoping to prevent the Martys from leaving the country.

Babu is hoping the state succeeds. The memories of 2000 still rankle.

Arpita was a bubbly 10-year-old who liked soft toys, dresses with floral patterns and an occasional icecream. She met the Martys at Gateway and took an instant liking for the couple.

After all, her family—one among the 100-odd Pardhi tribal families staying near Gateway—never took her on car rides around the city. Like other Pardhis, Arpita’s family too had migrated to the city for employment. But when the jobs they were hoping for never came their way, they ended up as beggars, hawkers and balloon-sellers.

After meeting the Martys, life as Arpita knew it changed. She and her friends, including best friend 9-year-old Savita, were frequently treated to Chinese food and icecream, and pampered with new clothes and soft toys.

Babu and Vimla had no reason to suspect anything amiss. On the contrary, they were touched when the Martys enrolled their children in a local English-medium school—Holy Name School.

After gaining their trust, the elderly Swiss couple revealed their true colours.

The Martys took Arpita and a few other street kids—all girls—to their room in a plush hotel. According to the prosecution, the Martys used persuasion or force, or both, to make the young girls strip.

Mary filmed the acts on her camera. The children, says Babu, ‘‘noticed a computer in the room’’. Babu doesn’t know it, but the laptop was used to post nude photographs of the children on the Internet, says public prosecutor Deepak More. The abuse continued for weeks. But neither Arpita nor her friends ever revealed what was happening. Babu has no idea why.

The couple were finally nabbed on December 16, 2000. The duo were filming a pornographic film with six children—including Arpita and Savita—at a hotel in the Malad-Marwe area.

Four years on, Arpita and Savita have moved on. Babu says they are living in St Catherine’s Home, a suburban boarding school and are ‘‘happy’’.